Why critics hate

This window gets smaller every year with huge blockbusters coming out earlier and earlier. The industry hasn't quickly adapted to the changing market, so we have these huge blocks during which nothing comes out, and what does is mostly garbage. What does that mean for the audience versus critic dynamic? Well, the fact of the matter is that the sheer volume that critics see makes the differences more obvious.

While the audiences might love that dumb action movie, the critics might hate it. It's not so much that critics are out of touch; they just can't do their jobs without seeing an overwhelming amount of movies. This isn't just true for film critics but for anyone who reviews media for a living. A game reviewer will play a huge amount of games in a year, a book critic will read a huge amount, and a food critic will eat out much more than the average American, so of course they are going to be bored more easily.

So, no, critics don't hate everything, but the nature of the job does mean that our opinion can be very different from the opinions of the audience. It's the nature of the job, and you as a moviegoer or gamer or reader must decide whether or not that opinion will sway you. I usually recommend finding a critic that you usually agree with, and following their work instead of looking at scores overall. The lazy state of modern filmmaking means there is going to be more bad than good.

As critics, we see it all and the bad, sadly, outweighs the good. Enjoyed this? Please share on social media! Comments will load 8 seconds after page. Click here to load them now. Latest by Kaitlyn Booth. The Greatest Showman is an original musical inspired by the life of P.

Barnum, with Hugh Jackman in the starring role. Although Jackman is mostly associated with his role as Wolverine in the X-Men film series, he was built a successful career in musical theater; from playing Curly in the West End production of Oklahoma! Hugh Jackman was instrumental in getting The Greatest Showman made, becoming attached to the project in and championing its production until the premiere. Following the mainstream success of Hamilton , which proved that musicals could achieve mainstream popularity outside of Broadway, and La La Land , which proved that original musicals could be a critical and commercial success at the box office, the world was finally ready to take a chance on The Greatest Showman.

While the anticipation for the film was intense, including thoughts that it had what it takes to be a serious contender for Academy Awards, the universal panning of the film by critics meant that enthusiasm quickly waned. Criticism of the movie included the notion that the movie was shallow and watered down and didn't really cover the life of PT Barnum in a truthful or fulfilling way, and critics set up The Greatest Showman to be a massive commercial failure for the studio — a similar fate to that experienced by later musical Tom Hooper's Cats.

While the movie did cop many bad reviews, it was a huge commercial success through word of mouth and many devoted fans. But why did critics actually hate The Greatest Showman , and how did they get it so wrong? Even the harshest critics of the movie were willing to admit that the songs, written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who were also songwriters for Dear Evan Hansen and La La Land , were catchy earworms.

The music for The Greatest Showman were powerful and inspired by pop, unlike those Pasek and Paul wrote for the initial box office risk La La Land , which were more influenced by old-school Hollywood musicals such as Singin' In the Rain. A key element critics did not enjoy was that the serious story of PT Barnum — many of the darkest parts of which were elided — was watered down with saccharine pop music, doubled by the choice to score a period movie to a pop soundtrack.

But the music of The Greatest Showman was beloved by audiences, who found it wildly danceable and turned the soundtrack for the movie into a hit: after four weeks, it hit No. Even critics eventually had to admit the music was stellar when the standout song " This Is Me " received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

The songs of The Greatest Showman were engineered for sing-alongs and was successful across demographics - something most musicals never achieve. Critics argued that the music was too low-brow and mainstream, whereas truly great musical theater should be held to a higher standard.

However, the success of Broadway musicals like Dear Evan Hansen or Hamilton , which proved that musicals can break into mainstream culture and be hugely successful, made the accessibility of The Greatest Showman a strength, rather than a weakness.

In order to do so, we created an index based on the disparity between audience and critic ratings based on reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and the Internet Movie Database.

Many of the films with the greatest differences in critical and audience appreciation would be considered low brow. Light-hearted comedies and over-the-top action flicks do not always aim for lofty intellectual goals but exist as unpretentious entertainment for movie lovers, who have no trouble expressing their enjoyment. In comparison, these are the movies that both audiences and critics love. Certain filmmakers have received more critical scorn than others, despite being loved by fans.

Director of Christian movies Alex Kendrick has four films that appear on our list. Actor David Spade stars in four and Chris Farley in three.